Daily Rover » Family

Finding Your Family History

Mike — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:00:47 +0000

A local cable channel broadcast an interesting TV show about finding your family history. Genealogy is a new interest of mine, so I’ve captured the web links mentioned in the program. You might find these useful in your family search too…

The US Gen Web Project is a group of volunteers working together to provide free genealogy websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States. Organized by county and state, US Gen Web provides links to all the state genealogy websites, which provide gateways to the counties. usgenweb.org

TXGenWeb.org is a related all-volunteer project linking to genealogical and historical records listed by county in Texas. txgenweb.org

The National Archives is a great site for the general public, genealogists, family historians, veterans and their families, and teaches and students. archives.gov

The National Archives will host it’s sixth annual Genealogy Fair in Washington, DC on April 14th and 15th.

The LDS church has a great site for free family history, family tree and genealogy records. I’ve heard this is a very complete family research website. familysearch.org

The Proceedings of Old Bailey is a fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London’s central criminal court. It’s value as a historical source is the reliability of the proceedings as a transcript of what happened in court. oldbaileyonline.org

Some other interesting research tools are:

Footnote.com helps you find and share historic documents. Many never-before-seen historic documents are available through their unique partnerships with The National Archives and the Library of Congress. footnote.com

WorldCat is the world’s largest network of library content and services, where you search the collections of libraries in your community and thousands more around the world. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their resources on the Web, connecting you to the collections and services of more than 10,000 libraries worldwide. worldcat.org

trooptube.tv

Mike — Wed, 27 May 2009 08:15:01 +0000

TroopTube helps military families connect with each other. Soldiers and their loved ones can keep in touch half way around the world with this online video site. It’s easy to upload a quick video to share your day with each other, and it means so much to so many! www.trooptube.tv

VIDEO: Therapy Dogs Help Wounded Warriors Heal

Memorial Day

Mike — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:04:49 +0000

To our United States Veterans this Memorial Day…
Thank You for your selfless and dedicated service to our country,
God Bless You for your personal sacrifice and that of your families.
We Honor You today and every day for our freedom here in America.

Credits:
Slide show created by Daniel Breitfeller.
Music is Dogs of War from the Medal of Honor: European Assault soundtrack.
All pictures came from various websites.
Video courtesy of YouTube and acapellaman129

Who Benefits From A Benefit

Mike — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:02:22 +0000

People are amazing. Friends came together today for a benefit for my sister who is recovering from a brain injury. The turnout was awesome as we served lunch and then had a live auction of mostly donated items. A silent auction ran in the background, and then we finished with a raffle. A dedicated group of friends worked for the past three months to put this benefit together, and volunteers arrived at 6:30 am to set up for today’s event.

The caring and giving nature of our community has truly touched my family and I. It’s hard to express in words just how much I am moved by people’s generosity and willingness to help others. An experience like this restores my faith in humanity because I’ve always believed that God works through us, as angels on earth, when we care for and help each other when in need.

Not only did my sister’s friends helped out, but perfect strangers showed up today to purchase lunch, just knowing this was a benefit for someone in need. Especially during these trying economic times, it’s wonderful to see people helping each other. Today was another example of a recurring lesson in my life. When we help others, we also benefit in many other ways.

Thanks for Giving

Mike — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 03:51:21 +0000

What a great Thanksgiving we had. Of course the food was awesome; smoked turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie. But being with family is the most important. Even if some family are in distant locations, a simple phone call brings you all together. My brother called me, and as we reminsced about our childhood, it brought us together in the same space for that moment.

So thanks for giving us kids so much, Mom and Dad. We are truly blessed this Thanksgiving with your love.

We also observed a couple of other family traditions today. We watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, and also watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Meals

Mike — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:57:18 +0000

I was talking to my sister about what to bring over for our Thanksgiving meals. Yes that’s plural because we all know we will eat more than once this Thursday. Main course, watch TV, snooze, dessert, more TV, snooze, repeat when necessary. Sound familiar?

We worked out a menu; she’s cooking a twenty pound turkey along with dressing, mashed potatoes, brown gravy, green bean casserole, and pea salad. Probably stuffed jalapenos for an appetizer. I’m bringing sweet potato casserole, complete with brown sugar and the little melted marshmallows on top. We’ve got to have bread, so add some dinner rolls and a pumpkin pie for dessert.

Whatever Thanksgiving meals we’re eating this week, we are grateful for these blessings of food and family. In these hard economic times, it’s good to reflect on what we have, whether it’s good food, good family or good fortune, and give Thanks to our Lord for our blessings. That’s Thanksgiving.

Black Friday Deals

Mike — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:01:07 +0000

I was curious about how many stores are putting out their Black Friday deals early. So I made a Google Alert for Black Friday, and man is it active! There are dozens of big deals arriving at my inbox daily now.

So I’m going to share some of these advance sales with you, so you too can take advantage of the early sales being offered in the next week…

Walmart Sales Deals
like this one…SanDisk 4GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive $9.00

Best Buy Sales Deals
good bargain…Western Digital 1TB My Book Home Edition External Hard Drive (1 TeraByte!)
The usual price $259.99 – Black Friday sale price $149.99

Kmart also has all day Black Friday Deals that also are valid on Saturday. Here’s a good example: Sony Bravia 32-inch LCD Integrated HDTV (720p) On Sale $599.99 Friday Nov. 28 and Saturday Nov. 29 only!

Target Stores are advertising the ASUS Eee 8GB PC Netbook Computer with Windows XP for $349.99 right now. They also have Black Friday Sales Deals, but many have already started!

Find many more Black Friday deals at www.blackfriday.info

Hanging at the Nursery

Mike — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:50:20 +0000

We stopped at a roadside nursery on our way into south Texas. Don’t remember the name, but the brilliant colors drew us in, and we left with about $50 worth of plants. This one plant is still “hanging around.”

Time for change

Mike — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 06:55:48 +0000

It really was time for a change. I had been working the same job for eight long years without a real vacation. To make things worse, the company had “reorganized” over the last year, and started to heap more and more chores onto our team, adding to our daily tasks. At first it seemed OK, but then people began to quit. One or two at first, then a flood of staff fled the sinking ship. Then the firings began. Nothing made sense. General chaos ruled with major confusion the daily routine. I became a statistic, along with many others.

Our government says our economy is ok, but rumors run rampant of recession. Members of my own family are at economic disadvantage, as I too become “self-employed.” It is time for a change.